Potato-Salmon Croquettes

{Meatless Monday}

OK...I am a little surprised that I actually tore this recipe out of my Parents magazine...and then kept it for a year!  ; )  But I thought they seemed interesting and I also knew the kids would have a blast making them with me...which they did! (pictures below)

I have never tried to buy Salmon before...but this is pretty much all that I could find that was not outrageously expensive.  I should have taken some pictures of what came out of this can.  But I could barely make myself prepare it! ; )  My 8 year old daughter was eager to help, so she grabbed a can opener and opened this baby up.  I told her to drain it and dump it onto the cutting board.  I was at the stove making the mashed potatoes out of potato pearls when I hear her say, "Um, MOM...why does this have skin and bones in it?"

I really wish now that I had taken a picture.  The skin was the grossest part.  But it had ALL of the bones too...even all the little vertebrae.  We kind of had a cool little science lesson right there in the kitchen as I went to work trying to remove all the bones from this salmon meat.  Because the last thing that I needed was to pay the money for this dumb salmon, go to all the work to make these dumb things, have the kids make a total mess of the kitchen and their hands and most likely their clothes...and then have them NOT EAT IT because they crunched on a fish bone!!!

So after that disaster was all cleaned up and dumped in the outside garbage can ( hate those yucky fish smells!!) I went ahead with the recipe...and it actually turned out great!  My kids really did have a great time making them.  It wasn't as big of a mess as it could have been.  And ALL of my kids loved them.  I will be making them again...but next time I am going to try a nice little can of White Albacore in place of the Salmon.  I think it should still work and I won't have to deal with slimy, scaly fish skin!

Here's what  you need to make your very own FISH STICKS!!  You never knew that you wanted to make your very own, did you??  This is a food that kids always like and I bet your kids would love to get up to their elbows in flour, beaten eggs, and breadcrumbs....so give it a try!!

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, chilled
10 oz. canned salmon, drained
2 large eggs
1 T. lemon zest
2 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and Pepper
2 to 2 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup vegetable oil (or less, if you are like me and have a really hard time frying anything!!)


In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, salmon, 1 egg, zest and parsley.

Put the flour in a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper.  In another shallow bowl, whisk the remaining egg with 1 T water.  Place the bread crumbs in a third shallow bowl, like this...

Using wet hands, form the potato mixture into 3 inch fingers. Dip the fingers in the flour, and shake off any excess; dip them in the egg wash, and then roll them in the bread crumbs...pressing the crumbs on to form a crust and do a final shaping of the fish sticks.

Now...the magazine has this beautiful photo of nearly perfectly shaped "croquettes", as they call them, but I am sure you can appreciate that with helpers like these, mine were not going to be quite as cute. ; )
But they actually did a pretty good job for being 5 and 8!!

Coat the bottom of skillet with oil and working in batches, fry the croquettes until golden brown all around, 4-6 minutes total.  Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

My kids ate these with some mayonnaise mixed with ketchup.  I prefer a mix of a little light mayonnaise with some Cajun Seasoning.

Next time I make them, I am going to try to bake them after a very quick, light frying and see how they turn out!!  I will let you know.